Guv talks franchise tax reform, sanctuary cities

Gov. Rick Perry wouldn’t shut the door on a possible overhaul of the state’s franchise tax during an morning press conference today.

“We, always, are open to fixing any inequities that may be there, but I don’t suspect there will be a tax bill,” Perry said.

When asked if he would support changes to the franchise tax that would bring in new revenue, he didn’t slam the door shut.

“Generally speaking, when you talk about a revenue neutral issue, you don’t consider that to be new taxes,” Perry said. “I think getting bogged down in the semantics of ‘oh yes, that is a new tax, or yes, that’s not a new tax,’ is not particularly constructive.

Perry didn’t offer many more details about his call for legislation that prevent Texas cities from having what he describes as “sanctuary city policies.”

“We’re going to have a very lengthy and appropriate conversation about the concept of cities allowing for individuals to find haven from our laws in this state,” Perry said. “There are cities in this state that have made decisions that they’re going to be havens for those who are in conflict with federal immigration laws or state laws and we’re going to prohibit that.”

He declined to name specific cities that he thought had policies that elevated them to the status of “sanctuary cities.”

But when asked about the attacks by his gubernatorial campaign former — which charged that his Democratic opponent, former Houston Mayor Bill White, ran a sanctuary city – he said he stood by those remarks.

“We do stand by what we said during the campaign,” Perry said. “I think the people of Houston realize that they had some policies in place that were inappropriate.”

When pressed again on the matter, Perry again refused to identify which cities he thought were “sanctuary cities.”

“I consider a number of cities in this state to be out of compliance with what the citizens of this state want to see, from the standpoint of making sure that our citizens are kept safe,” Perry said.

Perry never answered a question about whether or not his call for emergency legislation to end “sanctuary city policies” would change policies regarding the enforcement of immigration law at the Department of Public Safety, which are functionally identical to Houston’s policies.

He was also pressed about how state budget cuts could affect school districts around the state, specifically regarding school districts in the Houston area.

“I think the proponents of Armageddon, speaking thusly (loudly) for a long time,” Perry said. “Every legislative session there is some group, somewhere, who says the sky is falling and good news is that the sky has not fallen yet.”

The press conference followed a breakfast, where Perry met with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and newly re-elected House Speaker Joe Straus – both of whom also attended the press conference.

In their statements, all three said they had a productive breakfast where they discussed the budget crisis and other important issues that will come before the Legislature during the session.

All of them said they were committed to balancing the budget without raising taxes. However, unlike past statements, Gov. Perry did not mention a prohibition on using money from the Rainy Day Fund to help fill the giant hole in Texas’ budget.